The Jones Team: Magdalena Update and Victor's Birthday Party

On Friday we took Magdalena to the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU to have her vision checked. As mentioned earlier, she had not been opening her left eye as much as her right, and the nurse practitioner at the Cranio-facial office suggested we have it checked to ensure that her development was not impaired.

Fortunately her eyes are fine - she is opening the left more now, and while she doesn't open it as wide as the right (could lead to an astigmatism later from the lid resting halfway on the eye) - the doctor did not think that she would have any vision development issues, and certainly she doesn't have any now. That was a relief. Next we meet with the Cranio-facial surgeon and neurosurgeon to have them examine her skull and get another opinion towards her potential craniosynostosis diagnosis. However, the real test on that will be the CT scan in January, which will get a full 3D image of her skull and really tell us whether her coronal plate has fused to the one behind it. We appreciate everyone's prayers and thoughts for Magdalena as we're trying to resolve this issue with her little skull.

A few other notes on Magdalena. She really seems to like Tummy Time - will stay there for 5+ minutes without complaining! She also is very strong - holds her head up by herself quite well (since about 2 weeks) for several seconds to even a minute or two at a time! She tends to poop in fours - four squirts then she's done (and mostly after she eats, plus Tummy Time helps get it out). Getting better at sleeping in the bassinet, though tends to be more light and sound sensitive than Lucia ever was - it is hard for Lena to sleep in the bassinet when there is noise in the background or bright lights in her room. This is unfortunate as most of the time the house is pretty loud with Lucia running around. But Magdalena will sleep in the bjorn quite well, so often I'll just wear her around the house. Finally, she is becoming more alert, and we hope that we will see her smile quite soon. She is very patient with Lucia giving her hugs and kisses and wanting to hold her all the time. I'm sure she'll love and admire her big sister very soon.

Today was our friend Victor Shah's 4th birthday. His parents hosted a great party at Munchkin Playland near the Albertsons on NW 185th and West Union. They have those soft foam-style play structures for little kids to climb all over. Lucia had a blast, and Magdalena slept half the time (then pooped and woke up for the rest - startled by the noise and bright lights).

Sisterly Love: